Home Office publishes Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Action Plan

Procurement policy has evolved to include greater delivery of social value and as laid out in the plan, the Home Office states that creating opportunities for the SME sector can, in itself, be a creator of social value. Through engagement with SME businesses, they can support the Home Office to delivery greater localisation, reduce carbon to achieve net zero by 2050, create jobs and apprenticeships and deliver community initiatives, helping the UK to economic prosperity.

The plan outlines both how and where Home Office publish procurement opportunities for SMEs, alongside their:

• Commercial pipeline which gives sight of future procurements and is refreshed every 6 months
• Notices and opportunities published on their Contacts Finder
• Guide on selling goods or services to the public sector
• Guidance on partnering with other businesses to submit a bid
• Defence and Security opportunities through the Defence and Security Accelerator and The Joint Security and Resilience Centre

Action plan workstreams

1. Simplifying the procurement process

The plan lays out how completing multiple procurement documents to bid for public contacts can potentially be a barrier for SMEs, so in turn it talks on what the Home Office are doing to overcome this barrier through:

• Reviewing low value procurement documents and thresholds
   
• Using standard forms of contract
   
• Operating lean procurement methodologies and adopting a proportionate approach to lower value contacts to minimise the burden on SMEs
   
• Continue to minimise complexity when designing technical evaluation criteria
   
• Ensuring procurement strategies identify opportunities to disaggregate requirements into smaller “lots” to be more attractive to smaller businesses

2. Updating policies and procedure manual
    
3. Updating assurance process
    
4. Alternative commercial models
    
5. Making use of Crown Commercial Service
    
6. Running ‘Supplier Introductions’
    

What the Home Office plans to achieve

1. Continue to engage with the SME supplier community on pre-procurement
    
2. Better post-procurement engagement (debrief)
    
3. Further ongoing supplier engagement such as Small-Scale Industry Events (SSIEs) focused on specific market categories with Social Value running as a common across events
    
4. Offer hybrid forums
    
5. Strengthen social media presence
    

To read the full action plan, including examples of what the Home Office has already achieved within SME engagement, 2022 – 2023 risks and issues, and the plans to increase visibility of opportunities for SMEs on supply chain activities – click here.